Can Liberals Bridge the "Religion Gap"? Do They Want To?

Randall Sullivan, author of The Miracle Detective, isn’t so sure (link via Amy Welborn):

I was discovering something a lot of people on the right already understand very well, and that is the depth and breadth of America’s cultural divide, especially when it comes to religion. Back when Publishers Weekly praised The Miracle Detective as the rare book “that should appeal to believers and skeptics alike,” I imagined I could bridge this divide. I had a lot to learn.

I remember trying to tell Air America talk show host Janeane Garofalo (when I interrupted her in the midst of a particularly vituperative anti-religious rant) that polls consistently indicate that at least 90 percent of the people in this country believe in God, and that when asked, “Do you believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God?” more than 75 percent answer yes.

I was attempting to make the point (to my fellow Democrat) that she and her allies on the left could never hope to build a political consensus with less than a quarter of the population, but it soon became obvious that Ms. Garofalo was unimpressed. All this told her was that the vast majority of U.S. citizens remain in thrall to archaic superstitions and that I now was one of them.

[…]

When I reflect upon my book tour, a moment to which I often return was one that took place in a Berkeley bookstore. During the question-and-answer period after my reading, several members of the audience insisted upon turning our exchange into a test of my political correctness. Although I was willing to concede that I disagreed with many of President Bush’s policies and that I was genuinely outraged by his handling of the Iraq invasion, my refusal to mock Mr. Bush’s religious faith infuriated several of my interrogators, who stood up and walked out when I said that, as Christians, I believed Mr. Bush and I shared some common ground.